I still expect Joanne to phone me. My head knows she’s gone but my heart can’t accept it. I ache every day for her
The mum of a young woman killed by a former boyfriend said her daughter’s death was needless and has broken her heart.
Mum-of-four Joanne Gallacher, 33, was stabbed 57 times when she went to see James Kennedy after he was deemed fit for release from psychiatric care.
As the first anniversary of Joanne’s death approaches, her mum Louise said she still expects her daughter to call or send her a text.
Louise, 58, who lives near Alicante in Spain, said Kennedy and her daughter had remained friends after their break-up. He had been in hospital with mental health problems and had been left with nowhere to go when he was discharged.
“He stayed with Joanne but she felt it was better if he moved out,” said Louise.
The last time Louise saw her daughter was when she dropped Joanne off at her flat in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, one night last December, around 9pm.
“We know she went over to see him as she called a taxi at 11pm and arrived there about five minutes to midnight,” said Louise. “By two minutes past midnight she was dead. We have tried to piece things together and have not got to the bottom of it. She wasn’t aware of any danger he presented. I hold the hospital responsible for allowing someone so ill out on to the streets.
“We need a better joined-up approach by health services. A better risk assessment would have saved Joanne.
“Knives were removed from his house. We didn’t find out about this until later.”
Louise said her granddaughter, 16, thought of Joanne as her best friend, while Joanne’s three younger children must also now grow up without their mum.
“We are devastated,” said Louise. “I am still waiting on Joanne phoning me. My head knows she is gone but still I feel she’ll call. It doesn’t seem real. I have this feeling I’m eventually going to wake and this will all have been the most horrific dream.
“My heart aches every day for her and I still wait for that call or text saying, ‘mum – I’ll be over next week’, even though I know it won’t come.
“One year on he’s still to be sentenced. The courts don’t seem to appreciate there’s a family that needs some kind of closure. We just hope he remains locked up.”
At the High Court in Glasgow in June, Kennedy, 32, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
He’s being detained at the State Hospital at Carstairs and is due to be sentenced on December 16.
Dr Alastair Cook, medical director, North Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “This is clearly a tragic situation, particularly for Ms Gallacher’s family.
“A review into the care and treatment of James Kennedy is currently under way which aims to identify what lessons can be learned.”